7/30/2024 - NMUSD Regular Board of Education Meeting

001okay calling the meeting to order roll call please I trusty cran trusty wean trusty soyu trusty B yes here trusty Murphy yes trusty Pearson here trusty Anderson here Dr Smith here all right so adoption of the agenda do I have um a motion so moved second I amend the agenda okay um trusty BTO I'd like two P B 16 B can you can you say what it is for us yes let me I wrote it down and I forgot um 41 is 16b would be approve Proposal with Orange County 16 b41 thank you oh 16 b41 for discussion please approve the renewal agreement between groundwell and Newport Harbor High School for the 2024 school year okay so we would you're suggesting we move that we are moving to put 17 B b41 to 17 C

002okay um so now do I have a a motion to actually approve the agenda with the amendment of moving um 16 b41 to 17 C so moved second okay roll call vote trusty crane yes trusty ween trusty Oru trusty BTO yes trusty Murphy yes trusty Pearson yes trusty Anderson yes okay so the vote is five to zero what two absent and the vote passes thank you and and do we have any Community input on Clos session items seeing as there are none we will move to Clos session the items are a conference with legal counsel anticipated litigation conference with labor negotiator C Public Employee discipline dismissal release employment D Public Employee discipline dismissal release employment ment number 20243 HR and E consideration of student requests for postponement of exposion hearing we will return to open

003session at 6: pm thank you call to order 6 p.m in closed session the Board of Education took action to approve the employment agreement number 20243 HR the roll call vote was as follows five A's unanimous with two absent we will now have trusty Pearson lead us in the moment of reflection and a Pledge of Allegiance please stand over your i al to the flag of the United States of America and to the for stands naice okay adoption of minutes do I have a motion to adopt the minutes so moved trusty Barto moved it and second trusty Murphy seconded it roll call please trusty crane yes trusty wean trusty Oru yes trusty Barto yes trusty Murphy yes trusty Pearson yes trusty Anderson yes all right motion passes uh let's move on to harbard council PTA

004report Miss Martha Flo so so it'll be like it'll be like that for a while yeah although I don't have to dress so fancy good evening president crane uh trustees and superintendent Smith and cabinet my name is Martha Flur and I'm the president of the harbor Council Association of ptas I have a brief report for you this evening our 27 ptas are busy setting up their calendars budgets and programs and activities for the 2425 year memberships are gearing up and today our Council has as of as of now 825 of the five over 5,000 we had last at the end of the year we are hoping that each one of you will become a member of at least one PTA unit together with 100% of cabinet and the trustees and anybody else who would like

005to join here we will impact the lives of students and their families within Newport Mesa each year our PTA units participate in the National PTA Reflections arts program which has been brought Arts to this to the life for more than 10 million students across the United States since 1969 Isabella quades FAA a student at Crona delmare middle and high school received a national PTA Award of Excellence in the Visual and Performing Arts she qualified because she is um one of our autistic students and we talked about it but she's now received a national recognition next year's PTA reflection theme is accepting imperfection Reflections encourages students of all ages to unleash creative talents and be inspired to express themselves imaginatively and in their artwork experience the fun and joy of making art tap into the critical

006thinking skills to create art inspired by the national annual theme and receive positive recognition for their original works of art our units are continuing to get comfortable with facilitron scheduling process we hope to schedule additional trainings for those units with new officers in place thank you to the entire facilities team led by with uh Matt Wong um we want to thank you for um supporting our program and activities with the easier to understand okay I got this right group categorization and the determination Matrix oh good okay um we hope that the scheduler for the fall will open soon there's now a a system that's in place I guess that uh they're calling it school allocation Matrix first so all the schools get to have it first and then um ptas and everybody else will get

007it but it's hopefully getting in place by the 18th of of August again thank you so much and school starts yes thank you we move on to um nmft president comments Miss Ronda Reed I believe CSA is skipping this one but thank you for being in the room good evening president crane trustees Dr Smith cabinet and guests here tonight I like with Martha FL I can hardly believe I mean she's super excited I'm excited too but I'm slow it down a bit where did Summer go um so excited that we're starting the next school year this summer has been just a whirlwind of conferences I re I wrote and received a grant from CFT for our Union so we had to attend me and a couple officers a weeklong conference in Monteray which was beautiful

008but we had such long days hardly could get out and enjoy it um and then last week we spent the week in Houston for the AFT conference so it was so um wonderful to see the different educational unions across our nation and also to see the leaders across our nation that were overwhelmingly supportive of unions it was inspiring so as you know we are currently in negotiations with the district both teams have been working really hard efficiently professionally we have our last scheduled meeting for this Thursday however most likely we'll have to put more on the calendar nft will continue to work TIR tirelessly for all of our Educators to pursue salaries that reflect their worth value and respect to maintain outstanding benefits and to advocate for the classroom supports necessary to provide the high

009quality education and instruction our Educators give to all their students in a productive and safe environment thank you thank you we now move on to community input on non-agenda items and I will be reading the statement for Dru who has a little bit of a voice issue this is an opportunity for the public to address the board regarding items not on the regular meeting agenda comments on non-agenda topics are limited to three minutes per comment up to 20 minutes per topic as speak speaker may not relinquish his or her time to another person by order of the brown act section 549 54.2 the board will take no action nor have any discussion on non- agendized items the superintendent May provide clarification during superintendent's comments um we have three comment cards um I have a question

010Miss Wendy Lee um it says non-agenda topic 12a which non agenda General and I put down there just to talk about a certain policy um okay so all right that's polic regulation 131 2.2 all right go ahead come on up and then next is um Matt Armstrong and after that is Charlie Mata good afternoon um members of the board Madame President and Dr Smith uh my name is Wendy lease um the policy regulation I want to talk about is 131 2.2 complaints concerning instructional status um the process is as you know with a uniform complaint could be about anything it's pretty generic as far as the state is concerned in other districts I've checked into how other districts handle this a complaint is filed and then um the superintendent uh rules whether to receive it

011or um and but if there is the option uh to have a a committee formed however the committee uh is one resident and appropriate staff as determined by the superintendent to review the matter and make a recommendation to the superintendent um I find this is like a secret committee and it's not really fair to the person that's complaining about something um because there's no written report that um from the committee so that the the person who's appealing has no clue what was discussed in the meetings and um even if you wanted to keep the people on the committee Anonymous there should be something that summarizes the discussion uh in the committee now this uh was adopted in ' 09 so I my recommendation um is to update the policy and really um in some cases

012uh maybe when you're reviewing a a textbook or a library book that the board should be the final say and not an anonymous secret committee so that's my recommendation thank you thank you next is Matt Armstrong president crane Trustees of the board superintendent Smith thank you for your service and thank you for hearing me tonight uh I'm Matt Armstrong I'm a teacher at Newport Harbor High School and I'm actually coming with my uh assistant department chair assistant English department chair hat on tonight uh with good news Newport Harbor achieved a 16% Improvement on our 2024 Ela Casp scores uh we're back we're back at Ora o 2017 or 20 to 2018 levels uh I don't put a lot of stock in standardized test scores but at least by this measure nhhs has conquered pandemic learning

013loss in English language arts and we did so without any academic instructional or curricular intervention Sailors have been learning all along even if their test scores don't always show it the success is a result of open communication strong educational community trust and cooperation between faculty and administration and Visionary leadership DRS Fox Bolton shakka Taurus and Smith thank you and to Keith Carmona for working closely with teachers as we build on that success also kudos to my colleagues in the English Department when we all work together great things happen all education is based on relationships over the last decade Newport Harbor has invested a lot in community building these test scores are just one dividend the strength of our school culture is another so I want to be unambiguous diversity is our strength is not just

014a catchphrase it's a commitment to consider all voices and consider all perspectives because cooperation is how you achieve results sailor pride is more than just an acronym it's a reminder that we're part of something larger than ourselves now over the summer most teachers do a lot of prep and planning this summer many teachers and I have spent about 20% of our time dealing with an attempt to ban a book from our libraries now think about how much more we could do for our students if we didn't have to spend that time and energy defending what we do think about the test scores so the next time someone attempts to frivolous book ban say no ref refer them to board policy 6144 regarding controversial topics in the classroom they'll harass you and Badger you but they've

015been doing that for 5 years and teachers will be able to focus on their students when these same folks attack our human relations efforts assure them that their voices have been heard but that you are unmoved then point to our test scores we don't need to relitigate decisions that have been made and arguments that have been presented at this very Podium these are just a few of the ways you can use your position and authority to protect nmusd teachers and allow them to continue delivering results thank thank you charene you get used you'll be fine good evening president crane trustees Dr Smith cabinet and audience I love using technology because it always backers I'm here today with my Personnel commission haton and to acknowledge the fact that HR is always busy sometimes when we think

016we have summer vacation HR doesn't um and our enviable summer programs utilize our expert teachers to provide outstanding experiences to a one I heard positive and exciting compliments on our summer programs tonight I'd like to highlight the other half of the team classified Human Resources assisted the hiring process for all of the summer programs 348 classified employees were utilized over the summer to support Elementary esy language secondary summer programs as well as nutrition services preschool transportation and warehouse It's amazing how many people have to be in the village for the village to work for the kids also as Mrs Miss olon knows everybody is working like little crazy people to make sure we have the best hires to get ready for August our August start I have cousins that are have already gone back to

017school so when we complain about starting in August they start in July I said we're going to just apparently always go to school forever it's headed that way but I just wanted to thank the board and staff and administration for your gracious cooperation and collaboration to make the summer program happen and to be very understanding and smiling when you talk to anyr people between now and the September 1st because they're busy and that was it thank you very much thank you we we may have one more we're just clarifying um if it's a non- agendized or agendized item yes non agend okay thank you um please wait till I um call your name I appreciate that you started on time hold on um is this it says new news items news items that's first last

018name uh Francine Howard oh I see okay I reside in Costa Mesa okay Francine Howard um welcome you have three minutes um thank you I'm just wanting to perhaps bring the board up to speed on the latest news items that have been swirling about and these aren't opinion pieces these are factual statements and there have been comments made by people in the district to these accusations first the email in May of 23 reveals students were secretly gender transitioned there were 23 in all eight Elementary which would be K through six um the response from a woman named Annette Franco The District was unaware further they found links to meet and greet events with surgeons at UCI Etc and then uh fast forward to July 24th 2024 the daily signal California School District hours uh Newport

019Mesa partners with lgbtq Center that recommends trans surgeries for miners the form asks the persons to fill out to select what kind of transgender surgeries this is just on a QR code at Harbor High School um they can choose from Top surgery chest masculation breast augmentation chest feminization facial feminization um and then there's body contouring hysterctomy phalloplasty vagin plasty Meo plasty and something I can't pronounce in the dictionary didn't even know what the meaning was so then we go to July 25th they uh somebody decides to take down the lgbtq resource link and that was of um just this past 25th 2024 and then we go to um The Daily Mail which is an international um news site with the same article and a smiling picture of the principal Shan Bolton and then miss Franco

020again defending the school in an email but declines to explain why the links have been taken down so then now we're back to July July 28th parents outrage School District forces children to room with trans students on overnight trips and if the student complains our your response is too bad don't go and then this um Miss Coy I believe parents and students do not get to pick and saying I don't want to stay with Susie because Susie isn't a real girl is no different than saying I don't want to stay with Sarah because Sarah is white uh non-religious uh Muslim which I think our um people of color would be interested that they are being put in minutes trans people thank you all right um we move on to 13 superintendent comments yeah with regard

021to um the board policy uh questions I guess the clarification I'd make is in fact tonight we're going to be hearing an item that's based upon that board policy there'll be a five- minute report on exactly what they did and what they found um so check that box uh and then as far as the board making the final decision which was one of the recommendations that's once again why that item is actually on the agenda for tonight in public so both of those things seem to be happening tonight um I would suspect to the satisfaction of the public member who uh made those comments as far as test scores right on great job I think it's exciting when we get to talk about uh the reason we're here to educate our kids to see that

022success to come out of the pandemic um and to see that kind of growth is powerful and I just have to say we've had a chance to walk through a bunch of the classrooms throughout the district uh we had a chance to go through Matt's classroom with P Nera one of the uh foremost experts in in education um achievement for all students uh and he was so impressed what Matt was doing in that classroom as Matt said he said it more eloquently it's not by accident these things happen we have great uh systems here we have great teachers doing great work we have great students we have great families that support what they're doing in the classroom because we have that coherence we're seeing great results so kudos to the team not just at Harbor

023that mentioned the results at Harbor but throughout District kudos to those folks putting the time in to benefit all students and helping them realize their dreams I I would just end with uh respectfully disagreeing that because it's in writing makes it a fact uh because someone puts it in a publication does not make it true uh even Michael Jackson recognize that in one of his songs Just because you read it in excuse me we have protocols it accurate that the accuracy about secretly transitioned is not true never happened the district came out with a statement we said it publicly where there were zero students in this District transition without parental involvement zero that's a fact we shared that here the links that they mention we partner with we do not partner with and the things

024they mention in those links are not in those links um I think it's interesting too that when you actually look at the link right that they're calling out right because that that would help us with facts they they mentioned this and I think this is important for people in our community that say parents should be involved because they should right they're they're hugely important to this that's why this link that they call out in the article says transitions is is exist rather to help guide the trans community and their families they lead with families do you know that the first two links are about parents processing about families uplifting right families parents and their involvement and then do you also know that for the other links that don't mention those things that were identified and

025read in public you have to be 18 or over 18 old right just like you do to join the military and vote in this country right so just because someone writes it in a magazine in an article even if they do it in the UK doesn't make it true right doesn't make it true that'd be my clarification thank you we now now move on to community input on agenda items and I will read that this is an opportunity for the public to address the board regarding items on the regular meeting agenda comments on a is there something I need to okay comments on agenda items are limited to three minutes per comment up to 20 minutes per topic a speaker may not relinquish his or her time to another person speaker cards for items on

026the discussion action calendar may be held until that item is considered by the board if the speaker prefers and on that note um is there anyone who would like to hold okay okay so this one can go ahead yeah I would like to um ask LCA Chri to come up good evening board president crane super tendent Smith and under other members of the board I am Luca shakori a policy intern with Orange County Supervisor Katrina Foley as former Newport Mesa School Board trustee for the Costa Mesa High School Zone the former Costa Mesa High School Foundation president and football booster president for the Mustangs supervisor Foley supports the approval of consent calendar item 8 supervisor fully applauds the board's steadfast leadership in continuing a project that was first envisioned 20 years ago when parents including

027the supervisor advocated for these and many other improvements to Costa Mesa schools supervisor Foley looks forward to attending the ribbon cutting to celebrate the transformation of Costa Mesa High School athletic facilities she thanks you all for your continued dedication and service to the schools and families of the Newport Mesa area and as always go Mustangs thank you so we have several um agenda topic number on on agenda topic number 17A which is the book challenge appeal and so what I would like to ask um and I'm going to call your name and let me know if you want to do your comment now or if you want to wait till we get to the item itself because you do have that choice so when I call your name just let me know and I'll put

028you know yours aside if you want to wait till later um Corey Chuck now okay Matt Armstrong Gwen Gaylord Quinn corbette no Aaron T yes now Lauren Boyd please Riley Shay Bill Dunlap so later okay and Haley Jenkins sorry and Haley Jenkins would you Haley would you you like to do it now or later I'll go so so when we're at the item okay great excuse me oh it's it's when it's before we discuss the um item but yes all right so let's begin with Cory and then Matt Armstrong and then uh Gwen Gaylord in that order and I'll call the rest and by the way uh we have nine and we have 20 minutes per topic so some quick math we're good right to know a little less two two minutes okay I'll try

029to talk fast um hello president crane trustees and Dr Smith um thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight U my name is Corey seak and I'm an English teacher at Newport Harbor High School and I'm about to start my 30th year teaching in the district and with the exception of my time in college I have been in this District as a student and teacher since I was 5 years old one of the the things I appreciated most about my education in this District besides my amazing teachers was all the choices I was given while n navigating through my educational Journey earlier this summer Librarians and teachers learned of a challenge to the book The Perks of Being a Wallflower in our high school library collections we are encouraged to hear that the book Review

030Committee voted six to1 in favor of keeping the book and appeal to that decision is on tonight's agenda although it is unlikely there will be any reason for the board to invalidate the committee's recommendation we would like to offer our support to nmusd trustees and ensure that the voices of censorship are not the only ones at the podium there are five teachers here tonight who will offer five different perspectives on book Banning I'll be speaking about the professional practices that inform book selection um now before I speak to this I want to be clear we should not ban books certainly there are texts that have no place in our schools but book banss are not the way to keep them out the professional Educators who are in charge of these decisions are experts Librarians teachers

031and administrators have all been trained in accreditated programs they have all been certificated by the state of California and in nmosd in particular we boast some of the best talent at all levels there are organizations that offer guidance such as the California Library Association and the American Association of school librarians there are Local District protocols for book selection and procurement there are long lists of approved texts at the state county and District level educational organizations such as the College Board ER see and international Balor all published databases of recommended texts we also use online resources to evaluate books Goodreads Common Sense Media and bookstore websites thank you [Applause] okay next is Matt Armstrong president crane Dr Smith members of the board thank you again for hearing me out I am still Matt Armstrong and uh

032there are people in our community trying to take books out of kids hands and they're asking you to do that dirty work there are many problems in our society and in our schools but censoring books will not solve any of them book Banning is simply not a means to any good end I will concede there are books in our libraries that are offensive any book might be deemed offensive in some way to some person somewhere so yes there should be safeguards in place and there are there ought to be a whistleblowing mechanism and there is but it is abuse of this system when somebody manipulates it for their own political ends some people find Value in stoking outrage and school board meetings are an easy way to get cheap airtime other folks just want to

033manufacture inefficiency and distrust as evidence for their foregone conclusion that public schools don't work and they don't even have to read the whole book I suspect they haven't any book challenge that goes to committee and appeal demands upwards of 100 hours of human capital if we entertain every bogus book challenge we won't have time for the important work of Education which is exactly what the opponents of public schools want I understand the board can't simply write off the haters completely and permanently but please remember they represent a fractional minority of our community the vast majority of actual parents of actual students in our schools are absolutely fine with the materials available in our libraries so the question becomes how do we maintain legitimate transparency openness without being manipulated and victimized by those who would abuse

034our institutional processes I'm about out of time but miss Gaylord will have some practical advice on that matter thank you very much thank you Gwen Gaylord followed by Quinn corbette and then Aon T president crane board trustees and Dr Smith thank you for allowing me to speak this evening my name is Gwen Gaylord and I am a true product of nmusd I attended Woodland Kaiser and enen before graduating from Newport Harbor I now teach high school English at my alma moer and as of 11 months ago I am a parent to a curious and intelligent infant who will someday attend the same schools that I did because of my passion for this District I find the following question pertinent the one that Mr Armstrong just brought up how do we ensure that the parents we

035serve are partners with a meaningful voice in the decisions around their kids Education Without counterproductive book challenges against texts that actually help students develop as readers and thinkers the board under the guidance and direction of Dr Smith is clearly well equipped to handle the process of book challenges and we thank you for having such a democratically conscientious system already in place but in light of current events we have some suggestions regarding how the board might consider evaluating additional books under consideration for example if a book is approved by the state of California the OC Department of Ed the international Balor or the College Board The credibility of these entities may be sufficient to protect the titles being challenged something else to consider is the intent of the text many books do represent inappropriate content depictions

036of genocide racism harm and hatred for example are and should be difficult to read but representation is different from promotion if a book is clearly intended to inspire violence promote a hateful agenda or undermine the foundations of Civil Society these intentions ought to be considered however such books are not offered in the high school libraries of Newport Mesa schools and since we are talking about public library books that are available for self-directed interest-based reading we ought to default comprehensiv within the Canon of what the aformentioned bodies deem appropriate because underlying these principles is a simple truth high school students are independent thinkers just because they read about something doesn't mean they'll do it generations of American students went through Reading The Scarlet Letter and The Great Gatsby but no reasonable person would argue that these

037titles in our classrooms make Americans more prone to adultery by the time they reach our English classrooms our students teachers and more significantly their parents have spent their lives helping them to learn what is right and wrong thank you Quinn corbette pardon me uh good evening president crane superintendent Smith and trustees thank you for your time my name is Quinn Corbett I'm an English teacher at Harper I'd like to open with a famous FDR quote we have to fear and we immediately know what's wrong with this because that's not the entire quote he did say we have to fear but the larger context is the only thing we have to fear is fear itself context matters and it is essential to understanding someone appealing the committee's decision on Perks of Being a Wallflower may come

038to the mic tonight or a future night and present decontextualized quotes from the novel it's impossible to know what naked passages might be chosen about suicide abuse sex uh but just to choose an example from page 30 uh they might Express a passage in which a high schooler sexually assaults a classmate however in the context of the novel The Scene is intended to be read for what it is morally wrong disgusting behavior and no reader of any age would believe otherwise furthermore if you consider the entire novel there are very healthy conversations between parents and their children and teens and their peers about sex in fact there is a lot of emphasis on consent and safety in a key scene towards the end Charlie gets uncomfortable in an intimate moment with Sam Charlie stops IT

039Sam respects his boundaries and then she Comforts him for feeling bad about it surely this is a worthy scene for many young people to read as it teaches the importance of consent demonstrates the value of trusting Partnerships and models qualities students should want to embody within themselves and find in their peers with whom they spend time novels are not howto books I can assure you students are not vaping in the bathroom because they read a story or covering up abuse and self-medicating because they read this story students learn from this story students who pick up The Perks of Being a Wallflower aren't doing it with some Twisted hope of learing at some dark underbelly of teendom they pick it up to see a person struggle with the things they struggle with and Charlie ends up

040okay I hope all of our students feel thank you very much thank you Aaron Aaron T Lauren bort and Riley Shay in that order thank you esteemed members of the board I'm not just Erin T I am Ain topping and thank you I was gonna say that but I know well I must have gotten nervous written it down funny I came to The Perks of Being a Wallflower as an adult about a quarter of the way through my 26 year tenure as an English teacher at Corona Delmar high school after a not insubstantial number of book reports on it it was thoughtful and surprising and unsettling reading Charlie's first-person point of view I remember thinking is this what it's like to be a teenager now that is completely different from my own experiences I still

041think it's one of the most sincere thoughtful insightful books that I've ever read so we know each reader experiences a book differently we bring our own knowledge sentiments and yes our own prejudices to it a scene that resonates with me might not even be notable by you or a brilliant observation you highlight might be offensive to me but what valuable discussion we can have about it and I can tell you as a stepmom to former teenagers our serious conversations were often challenging and insightful and downright cringey but books often provided an ideal way to open those conversations about self harm boundaries respect since we can't presume that each reader is going to read a book the same way it seems Preposterous that each parent of the reader is going to feel the same way about

042a book parents rights are important to this community so it's difficult to understand how a small faction of voices can argue for parents' rights when their actions will strip those rights away by removing books from libraries let parents decide what's right for their kids but not for all kids even better leave the libraries alone better still read the books your kids are reading talk to them about it listen to their stories Steven chabos wrote This Moment too will be another story I just hope we meet it in the right way thank you for your time thank you Lauren and then Riley good evening trustees and community members my name is Lauren Boyd I graduated from Newport Harbor High School in the spring of 2023 when I was a promoting eighth grader at ensen I remember

043sitting on the stage in the Robert B Wentz theater with my fellow classmates golden sees had just been awarded and a middle-aged woman walked up to the podium where she began talking about her son Mitchell rimlinger was 16 years old when he died as a result of diabetic keto acidosis his favorite book was to K To Kill a Mocking Bird in his memory his family created an award given to one eighth grader at ensen for excellence in English in the form of a hard copy cover of his favorite book I heard my name ring out across the auditorium and my hands shook similarly as they do today and I began to step forward that was the first time in my life that I began to understand that English wasn't just a subject I was good

044at in school but something that is core to who I am I soon realized that English and my Journeys through literature were informing and expanding the lens in which I viewed the world and connecting me to others who experienced the same almost six years later and I am an undergraduate English major in college at a time when books like to Kill a Mockingbird have been banned or challenged by some California school districts but the thing about banning books is that it does more than pull titles off of shelves it erases legacies like Mitchells Banning books serves nobody it is nothing but the reflection of a small band of people in our community who rely on fearmongering as fuel for coordinated political attacks today the perk The Perks of Being a Wallflower a book that traverses

045the intricacies and turmoil of adolescence and offers teenage readers Solace and Community has been called to The Chopping Block tomorrow it could be to Kill a Mocking Bird I compel you all to think about legacies like Mitchells and students like myself when making impactful decisions like these don't give into some people's fear of discomfort in the face of suppression choose Liberty be an atus Finch and protect the right to read thank you thank you Riley Shay Riley Shay good evening Bor good evening tashes thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight my name is Riley Shay I'm a recent graduate of Newport Harbor High School so recent as of this last June very exciting and when I was a sophomore I was really really depressed there was a lot going on in my life I

046had a lot of struggles I was dealing with relationship issues family issues and this book I swear to God it saved my life every morning I would wake up and I wouldn't want to open my eyes I would want my eyes to stay closed I never wanted to wake up again because I was just in such a deep bow of depression and yet this book this story and these characters showed me that I can live another day because they can live another day this book is about a teenage boy who makes it this book is about a teenage boy who is okay which showed me that I'm a teenage girl and I can be okay I felt very alone when I was a sophomore prior to reading this book and reading this novel allowed me

047to see that I am not alone neither are the millions of people who read this book neither are plenty of students who will have access to this book in their Library when we choose not to ban it tonight I will admit this book as previously acknowledged has some heavy scenes but I'd like to acknowledge that these heavy scenes resonated with me instead of you know making me as Miss Gaylord alluded to making me want to do horrible things or anything of that regard this book teaches you that you're going to be okay this book sits in your heart and and this book is the most well spoken novel I've ever read and trust me I have read lots of books it teaches you that you may struggle but you're going to be just fine and

048it teaches you that you have a community behind you you are not alone you will be just fine you were okay and without this book and without that message I'm not sure I'd be here today and I'm sure that the story is similar to many students who have the opportunity to read this book so I would like to urge you to ensure other students have the same opportunity I was given thank you very much thank you okay the other two statements we will read at the time of the item um we move on to item 15 which is achievement a report on Career and Technical education Miss dores yes president crane trustees and Dr Smith um you have in store for you tonight a wonderful presentation from our Career and Technical Education team and at

049this time I'd like to welcome up uh Keith Carmona our director of teaching and learning um Rachel kenberg our coordinator of career counseling and Lisa Snowden who is our coordinator of work-based learning and this Trio here is going to wow you with some amazing information related to our Career and Technical education Pathways opportunities for students and uh a look at the future we practice control l we'll go the other way isn't it ironic that this is a CTE presentation president crane members of the board Dr Smith thank you very much for uh taking the time to listen about um our wonderful CTE programs here in Newport Mesa um the real stars of the show are behind me um we're really excited about sharing um all of the wonderful things that are happening um in CTE

050and and uh thank you for allowing us to take the time uh once again we have our two wonderful coordinators uh first of work-based learning um Miss Lisa Snowden and of college coun career counseling uh Rachel kenberg thank you thank you Keith and uh thank you board president crane trustees superintendent Smith executive cabinet and guests here this evening for the opportunity to share how CTE is shaping the next generation of college career and life ready students CTE has transformed from a traditional vocational training model to a comprehensive program integrating both academic and Technical education today's CTE emphasizes college readiness work-based learning industry recognized certifications and development of leadership skills in this presentation and the handouts that you should have we aim to showcase the progress that we're making towards our goals and seek your continued

051support of our efforts to innovate in key growth areas hello esteemed trustees Dr Smith president crane I'm very happy to have had the opportunity to join this team last year and to see firsthand the amazing opportunities available to our students and to witness the rapid growth of CTE across our schools I wanted to begin our presentation by taking a look back at where we were the last time the office of College and Career Education had the opportunity to present to you in the summer of 2022 and where we are now in the 2122 school year we offered 114 CT sections in Bell for grades 72 and we had 16 High School Pathways in that summer of 2022 we were preparing for the introduction of the Back Bay spider lab and working on introducing child development

052at costaa now just a few years later those programs are flourishing and now we will be entering the 2425 school year with approximately 127 INB Bel CTE sections across 23 High School Pathways we are excited to introduce a full animation pathway this year at konad delmare high school and we will be growing computer science at both Costa Mesa and aonia with our expanded CTE sections and new Pathways in place let's take a look at the growth um the impact that this growth has had on our CTE student enrollment the graph on the left shows our CTE participants over time a CTE participant is any student that is enrolled in a CTE course um as you can see here the the graph illustrates an increase in growth across most of our schools notably Costa Mesa has

053significant growth over the last four years you'll see the increase in Back Bay last year and this is due to an additional digital media arts pathway offered there and also at twinkle thanks in part to the um restoration of two CTE electives last year so we're really happy to see that so when we talk about completers that's our graph on the left and a CTE completer is any student who successfully navigates through a proper sequence of courses achieving a grade of C or higher in the Capstone course and the graph here shows a really exciting story with some remarkable growth and and steady increases across all of our schools I'd like to point out the growth at Costa Mesa and Newport Harbor and Newport Harbor this just this last year actually broke a record with

054over 100 completers at that school and that's very exciting other schools like krona dmar and Estonia have also seen growth a source of pride in our department which we would like to highlight for you this evening is our work with women in stem just last year we had over or we had 512 female students grade 712 enrolled in a stem CTE elective course this actually is four times the number enrolled preo however it does still represent only 37% of the enrollment in those courses so we do continue to identify it as a growth area our CTE team proudly boasts 10 Dynamic female stem teachers and in this uh engineering Pathways in particular seven out of our nine engineering teachers are female and two of those teachers I actually want to shine a special Spotlight on

055they're on the far right of the picture at the top um that's bana Nara and Kimberly Riley these two took over over the Eagles engineering program last year uh Briana Nara also teaches the bilingual algebra class and aims to increase accessibility of the engineering pathway for our El students uh Kimberly Riley passionate about computer science is leading the charge at infusing computer science into their engineering pathway and will be teaching estonia's first AP Computer Science course this year of which they actually are going to be running two full sections uh and then we also for the third year now will be partnering with the city of Costa Mesa to host the annual women and stem event this spring this event is a place for our students to meet with female Professionals in the field and

056develop networking and communication skills we also wanted to share with you just some of our stem female CTS um students and our teacher who are just crushing the competition um one group you may not have uh heard from before is in the top Center um this picture is taken out our dreams for schools program this was an after school program for middle school students to learn how to code and in the program they worked in teams to develop apps and then at the end competed in a showcase competition so out of 10 teams uh districtwide the all female team in purple from konad delar middle school emerged the champions another Spotlight of our program is our connection to business and industry in CTE we strive to elevate a students educational Journey with meaningful Partnerships our

057program offers a Continuum of work-based learning experiences everything from guest speakers and field trips to mentoring job shadowing leadership development and more students also have an opportunity to participate with a local business to apply their learning in a real world setting you can see um by the Numbers here that our teachers have been working very hard to bring that real word learning to students this this summer we actually piloted a new course it's called professional internship where we place CTE students in various with within various organizations some of those being where Malcolm UCI health and Edwards Life Sciences in fact the student on the bottom left um she gave me permission to use her name and share her story I just spoke with her this afternoon her name is Samantha she's a Costa Mesa High

058School student she just finished a six week internship at Edwards Life Sciences there she got to participate in career Readiness workshops she met with mentors to learn about the various uh careers at Edwards Life Sciences but also within the field she also enhanced her collaborative leadership skills because she was she got to be the project manager of a heart awareness campaign alongside students from other districts and in this heart awareness campaign students designed Innovative and accessible Health Care Solutions for underserved communities affected by cardiovascular disease Samantha had this to say about her internship this experience has equipped me with the appropriate tools to navigate the pathway to success in a professional setting our Focus remains on creating impactful work-based learning experiences with a grow growth area on expanding our internships and developing robust apprenticeship opportunities

059in Exploration with various organizations and businesses including the city of Costa Mesa and others to begin to close our presentation I want to share with you what is on the horizon for our Department we will be supporting this year the alignment of the Project Lead the Way engineering curriculum pk12 in our district so at the elementary level all students will now have access to the launch curriculum via the science specialist um and then now with introduction of Middle School electives at both krona delmare and mon Vista this year all five middle schools will be offering Gateway curriculum electives um and then at the high school level we continue to expand and enhance um are three comprehensive uh four course pltw engineering Pathways at konad Delmar Costa Mesa and Estonia at the elementary level we also

060will be piloting career connected schools at Newport Heights and Victoria elementaries so this initiative allows students to leverage their strengths interests and values to foster a career curious culture um this is a partnership with CDE and Educators cooperative and it builds upon the world of work which has seen great success in the kahone valley Union School District um and now Nationwide and then finally we're working on increasing college credit opportunities for our high school students through Partnerships with our local community colleges through um increased dual enrollment and articulation opportunities so Rachel and I are extremely excited um to off the school year with our CTE teachers in a couple weeks but we also want to remind um everyone here in the room that we have our upcoming College and Career Fair at the OC Fair

061and Event Center on October 16th so we hope to see you and our students family and Community there um and with that that concludes our presentation and we're happy to answer any questions you have wow thank you trustees any comments questions I don't see any lights Jessie BTO I just want to thank you all so much I feel like CTE has just grown by Leaps and Bounds over the last two years and I'm just watching everyone succeed and um one of the the Earth um Edwards life science internship is amazing I know a lot of other school districts um on Coastline Ro have been doing that sort of thing so it's great to see our students taking advantage of this opportunity thank you for your hard work trusty Murphy um I Echo trusty BTO uh

062comments for sure and the question that I get asked um which so just per forat like how do you get into a CT that is what I get asked by parents all the time how do how do I get in how does my student join and Career Technical well the students should be meeting with their counselors the counselor should be providing a course selection sheet with the list of all the opportunities available so just in talking with their counselor they can enroll in a CTE course or pathway um they can also speak with the Roop College and Career specialist through Coastline Roop we have um five of those supporting our all of our schools including our alternative education sites if they're interested in exploring what they have to offer after school thank you I can

063add to that a little bit too also um especially at the eighth grade level I know this that's super important because they might be choosing a four course pathway starting their nth grade year um so I encourage all parents and families to attend the whether it's a future Eagles night future Mustangs night um available to them and that's a great place to explore and speak with a lot of our CTE teachers um and learn how to enroll in those programs thank you um I I do have a question in the interest of the public if a student lives in a certain attendance area and is is interested in a pathway that is offered at another high school or another site what what is our policy for that do we is there a transfer policy because

064that the whole point is to to basically offer our kids a pathway to success for something they're passionate about so do we have that for them yes students can transfer and put that request in if there's a pathway that is not offered in their in their area for example uh just last year we know that we had a student who lived in the Newport Harbor Zone but really wanted engineering at Estonia and so he transferred and successfully completed the pathway last year okay that's fantastic because that's the whole point so it's good to know that we have that in place um great report I also appreciate the this nice little handy dandy fact sheet we love data we love to have that and and you know we're we're out in in a community a lot

065and I get a lot of comments about how we're having a a shrinking skilled labor force and not every uh every employment requires a four-year college degree and so um my answer is is yes we are doing a whole vocational techn Career Technical educational pathway and they're just thrilled to hear that so I do know that not only our parents and our students um are excited about this but also our community at large so thank you so much great report thank you all right we move to um item 16 which is consent calendar do I have a motion to approve the consent calendar as amended second Jesse Pearson in a second who was the second trusty Barto trusty Barto roll call please trusty crane yes trusty wean trusty oyu yes trusty Barto yes trusty Murphy

066yes trusty Pearson yes trusty Anderson yes thank you unanimous motion carries so we move on to discussion action calendar item 17 with 17A which is the appeal regarding High School library book and um Dr Smith before we I turn it over to you we will now do the public comment cards from Mr Bill Dunlap and Miss Haley Jenkins you have two minutes two minutes right yeah okay got it um thank you board for letting me address you uh I'd like to just bring up the book Review Committee quickly I thank Mr uh Smith Dr Smith for uh uh telling us and explaining that to us but I do not see within the document the policy 1312 point2 other than Item B regarding in actual integrity and the uh protection of those involved I don't think

067that extends to anonymity um in the Arena of jurist prudence which this kind of is because it's an appeal and we're going back and forth normally you know the parties on both sides at the Newport Beach Public Library where we have discussed books with them uh we know exactly who's reviewing them and they're all members of the community this makeup of the committee is basically five District staff people of which we don't know where they live in one Community member so normally you would have more community members of diversity and that's fine we want to have both sides discussed so that is a concern and I've never been in a situation be it in a court of law or on any board where all the people involved were not disclosed in who they were so

068with that I'll move on to the book um I think the book really um I don't want to ban the book the book can go to the public library uh which is just down the street from every high school so that's fine but for it to be part of the curriculum uh be it in a library in a secondary school I think is a stretch uh the depiction of sexual acts is highly offensive and unnecessary uh the language of the street is not a required component of quality secondary education the students are going to get a lot of that just going in and out of 7-Eleven so we don't need to have books so anyway thank you thank you Miss Haley Jenkins hello superintendent Smith president Crane and members of the board um I I

069don't expect you to move the book um I it's highly doubtful I know some of you are in a group of women that read band books for fun for um your political group so uh I'm not expecting that much from you but um it takes a lot of courage to move a book um I like how they call it Banning you're not Banning a book you can move it out and like Mr Dunlap said um all of the libraries have these the students have access to it you could probably go online and read it as well um your job here is to make sure that things are educationally sound that's your job keep children safe when they come here away from their families and give them a good education there are dozens and dozens and

070dozens of other books that are more suitable for a child's education this in no way benefits them um and to have a scene where it's talking about um the boy pushed the girl's head down and she started to kiss his penis she was still crying um I had to stop watching at that point because I started to feel sick but it kept going on and they kept doing other things um again you are here to help children not just physically be safe but education or excuse me mentally and emotionally and reading a book like that at a school is not for them the school is for Education not entertainment so I would urge you to move the book but I I have my doubts thank you thank you okay so Dr Smith if you'd like

071to take this on yeah you bet the process will be Miss Wendy Le will give him five minutes to present her verbal statement and evidence to the board after that Dr Mike Shaka will given five minutes to present a verbal statement and evidence of the district's decision and the board will have their time to deliberate thank you uh Miss Miss Lee would you like to come up and you have five minutes don't start yet okay let's go um the book is about Charlie's emotional growth in high school through new his new friendships with other teens which is commendable well what are The Perks of Being a Wallflower title seems harmless shy introvert socially immature trying to make friends maybe aha one of the perks is watching two teens have sex well let's read it the

072scene takes place in Char's room at a party when his parents are out of town this one couple I'm reading on page 30 whom I was later told were very popular in love stumbled in my room and asked if I minded them using it I told them that my brother and sister said I had to stay here and they asked if they could use the room anyway with me still in it I said I didn't see why not so they closed the door and started kissing kissing very hard after a few minutes the boy's hand went up the girl shirt and she started protesting Come On Dave what the kids's in here it's okay and the boy kept working up the girl's shirt and as much as she said no he kept working it after

073a few minutes she stopped protesting and he pulled her shirt off and she had a white bra on with white lace I honestly don't know what to do at this point pretty soon he took off her bra and started to kiss her breast and then he put his hand down her pants and she started moaning I think they were both very drunk he reached to take off her pants but she started crying really hard so he reached for his own he pulled his pants and underwear down to and knees please Dave no but the boy just talks off to her about how good she looked and things like that and she grabbed his penis with her hands and started moving it I wish I could describe this a little more nicely without using words like

074penis but that's the way it was after a few minutes the boy pushed the girl's head down and she started to kiss the penis she was still crying finally she stopped crying because he put his penis in her mouth and I don't think you can cry in that position I had to stop watching at that point because I started to feel sick but it kept going on and they kept doing other things even and saying no even when I could I covered my ears I could hear her say that the this young lady was raped trustees did you read the book I read the whole book and many times however the inclusion of many vulgar obscene erotic salacious scenes totally overrides any of the author's intentions about the positive transformation of sweet Charlie and the

075scenes are pervasively vulgar I'm not going to read the definition of vulgar you know what it is is rape okay is there are is our educational value and vulgarities tacit consent to rape encourages criminal Behavior who are the six people on the superintendence ad hoc committee secret Anonymous committee who voted to keep perks in the high school libraries many thanks to the one brave soul who voted to remove to keep to remove the book SE sexual references are used to groom children to promote and normalize deviant Behavior while rejecting and destroying society's cultural norms established over thousands thousand of years slavery was once an accepted form until people started speaking up about slavery's immorality what we're speaking up today about perversive vulgarity in library books I implore you as trustees and trusted by parents to

076protect children to remove relocate and stop ordering this book it should have an R rating warning of sexual vulgar content some of you are up for reelection taxpayers should know that they are paying for an R-rated book voters will be watching your vote a better use of our tax dollars would be books for teens on how to overcome sexual advances bullying physical out abuse and alcohol and drug use the book boldly demolishes in many established cultural norms using a seemingly innocent intelligent and shy teenagers efforts to be accepted by his PE and teaches children to accept sexual exploitation drunkenness marijuana and LSD use nudity premarital sex and abortion for an untimely pregnancy yes we live in an inclusive to culture we are tolerant and respectful of other Lifestyles but we should never tolerate pervasive vulgarity

077in our Public School libraries or classrooms excuse me um I've mentioned uh in a handout that I gave you the other examples of pervasive vulgarity here's the bottom line in the uh Supreme Court decision of Island Trees vers uh Pico Island Trees school district versus Pico number one you as a school board are responsible for supervising the education of students in their in your care and can remove materials that are deemed educationally unsuitable or pervasively vulgar which this book is I've also listed the other um vulgarity substance abuse underage drinking of alcohol marijuana use l use and after effects getting stone with a guidance counselor teens drinking brandy self-medicating with marijuana stoned at school teen purchase of poppers aerosol can limo driver getting everyone's Stone physical abuse boyfriend hitting Charlie sister across the face dad

078SLA Charlie grandfather beating daughters over poor repart thank you very much for your time thank you Dr Shaka you have five minutes president crane members of the board Dr Smith executive cabinet and guests I'm Dr Mike Shaka the administrative director of secondary education in our district early last school year an inquiry was made to our secondary Educational Service Department by Miss lease about the book The Perks of Being a Wallflower being located in several School libraries in grades 7 through 12 at the time our school secondary Educational Service team utilized our district selected book evaluation tools book list horn book Accelerated Reader and school library journal to evaluate the book's age appropriateness after careful review the secondary Educational Department it was determined that it should be reclassified to our high school libraries all copies of

079the book were then relocated to high school libraries afterwards we received a request for reconsideration of instructional materials from Miss lease asking for the book to be removed from all nmusd high school libraries in response under the guidance of both board policy and administrative regulation 131 12.2 I was directed by Dr Smith to assemble a book Review Committee of which I served as a committee coordinator the purpose of this committee was to evaluate the book and make a recommendation to the superintendent with regards to age appropriateness of the book and its placement in our high school libraries the committee was composed of two secondary general education teachers one secondary educ special education teacher one Community member one site level administrator and one District level administrator along with our district librarian with the goal of having

080representation from multiple School sites and mul zones within our district the book Review Committee met twice the first meeting was last spring on April 17th the purpose of this first meeting was to introduce the committee members to each other review board policy and administrative regulations review the roles and responsibilities of the committee review the library material material selection tool and professional reviews of the book and distribute copies of the book to each member the committee was then asked to read the book in its entirety prior to our second meeting scheduled for May 15th on May 15th the committee reconvened at that time the team read and discussed the request for reconsideration of instructional materials submitted by Miss lease the committee also Revisited the professional book reviews recommendations and engaged in comprehensive dialogue regarding the appropriateness

081of the book for high school libraries it's important to note of our library selection review tools hornbook booklist Accelerated Reader and school library Journal three out of the four booklist School Li journal and Accelerated Reader had reviews and Aid reg recommendations available for this book all of these tools identified grades 9 through 12 as the recommended grade level the book committee diligently conducted its review process concerning the suitability of content and age appropriateness of materials while also fostering an inclusive dialogue within the designated book Review Committee Guided by District policy the committee has diligently conducted its review process concerning the suitability of content and age appropriateness of material the team emphasized holistic evaluation over fragmented assessments meaning we looked at the book as a whole and its intended message rather than focusing only on individual

082words sentences or passages that when presented out of context could be interpreted differently than intended upon completion of the process the committee submitted a comprehensive recommendation to Dr Smith for his review the committee recommended by a vote of 6 to1 the retention of the book Perks of Being a Wallflower Within in our 9 through 12 libraries the book committee recognized the book's potential to provide valuable insights and learning opportunities for students engaged in self-directed interest-based Reading within the high school library setting this recommendation was underpinned by a thorough consideration of District policy adherence to American Library Association School library selection criteria standards and the Newport Mesa Unified School District material selection process thank you for your time thank you board would you like to uh first deliberate before we make the motion or should should

083we just make the motion i' I'd like to hear what you have to say as far as discuss amongst ourselves now or would you like to First make the motion I can make the motion oh uh I motion to deny the appeal to remove the book Perks of Being a Wallflower from the secondary 9 to12 Library for the reasons provided in the superintendent correspondence to the resident dated May 28th 2024 second all right so we have a motion um by trusty Murphy and a second by trusty U and it is recommended to deny the appeal to remove the book all right so um any comments yes um Jessie BTO thank you um it's I'll probably being the minority here and that's okay um I did read the book and I read um and I have

084to say that I did appreciate at the end the the hopeful um nature of it um I found it difficult to get into because it's been a long time since I've been a teenager um but also um it made me uncomfortable and uncomfortable in two ways one was the good way um where you talk you think about took me back to things that um friends of mine experienced during high school that I would rather forget um I think that the ultimate hopeful nature of the book and knowing that kids go through stuff um sometimes without their parents knowing that is challenging and hard and I love that they involved the parents in those discussions that's how we want it to resolve um the other part though that made me um uncomfortable and not in a

085good way is I feel like um I read this version I read the ya version I didn't finish the movie but it is PG-13 I felt like some of the language in the book that we currently have um is salacious it is it detracts from the story it it I believe that if you're wanting to view this transformation and people are having a hard time you don't need those extra things in there I think that's um not what we're here to do um I can't recommend that we choose another version because that's not what this um vote is for um but I I can't um I would like to uphold I would vote to uphold the appeal because I think that those salacious pieces don't need to be there in order for that really uncomfortable

086but hopeful um reading and transformation for students to occur thank you trusty BTO anyone else trusty Oru and then Anderson yeah I just want to um thank the um and I apologize for my voice I've been sick for a very long time now um um I just want to thank the team from Newport Harbor and especially our students who I think this is the whole reason we are here so there are some very loud voices from the community that are you know choosing to want to restrict what students are allowed access to um based on their preference and their values but the the mere fact that we had an actual student come up here and tell us herself that this book was important to her at a critical moment in her life I think if

087it helps save her it helps save Charlie in the book I mean that is why we are here so to have one student come and say that is more than enough convincing for me to to not go through the appeal so thank you Jesse Anderson thank you um one of the things that I think is interesting about this um that it was brought to us is it's this isn't a book that is being currently used in a classroom a teacher isn't reading this discussing it putting it forward it is a purely optional book that any student could choose that's in high School of which this book is rated for 9th to 12th grade um I think for me um similarly to what the student um shared but also I think from a lot of the

088people I know from when I was in high school and students that I speak to now struggle with all of the same things that are in this book and [Music] to hear from some of the people in our community who maybe that wasn't their experience that's okay but if something isn't your experience that doesn't mean that we need to remove it from other people's access um I think one of the things that's really important about public education and democracy is that we are not a monolith in our community our students are not they come from different religious backgrounds they have different experiences um I think for me someone who is well educated can read something like choser that at one point was very inappropriate and de completely obscene to Shakespeare to something like this that

089um is very indicative of what a normal child in America experiences in 2025 it may not be what everyone would dream is the situation but that is what is happening in our schools um I think a concern that I have is um when we have a topic like particularly uh male mental health which is something that is ignored in a majority of the conversations that I have heard personally um not not in our district necessarily but across the country to have something that is one book that a student might be able to read and understand and not and normalize being on an anti-depressant having the experience of of some of the moments that this person has in this book to have I learned a lot from reading book that it wasn't my experience but I

090read and I had greater empathy one of the things that we need in our society in our schools is greater empathy and exposure to other people's experiences that are not our own one of the things to me that I've always felt um is really powerful particularly um is the book Freedom Writers right Freedom Writers is a book that um a Community member who brought this forward is very much a fan of and particularly because of the lived experience in other jurisdictions that book is taken away from classrooms or students because of vulgarity because of guns because of gangs because of teenage vernacular yet that book is widely given out as an indicator for students to feel I know this is your experience and I want you to feel someone else is representing that so to

091have this book be brought forward by that same person to me is troubling and it's unfortunate because I think a different sort of student in the same classroom could be experiencing those two different experiences um I personally am not um in favor of banning a book that um for me specifically is is no worse than a wide assortment of books that we have um in our public libraries and across the country um and nth to 12th graders are learning how to be critical thinkers they're learning how to discern oh this is troubling oh this experience happened and I don't know what to do and often they're not going to talk to a parent about it so to have positive um reinforcement of what some of those hopeful morality lessons should be I think is really

092important um so I um agree with the um trustees up here who have who have shared that they um are not approving this appeal thank you thank you trusty Anderson trusty Murphy um yeah I guess I just the thing that's fundamental to me in all of this is I just don't believe in banning books period um I just think it's unamerican uh I don't understand actually really where it comes from in the 21st century where you can ban all the books you want but there is the internet and so so if you want to read about whatever you want to read about all you have to do is pick up your phone and read about it and I don't know if you've been on a campus lately but I'd say 99.9% of our students have

093phones and access to the internet so I think what's more and most disturbing to me besides it being an American and a violation of our freedom of speech to try to ban books it's frustrating as a fiscal conservative actually to waste this much time and energy and funding taxpayer dollars on something that is truthfully a moot point maybe I don't know 20 30 years ago you could have banned books and no one would have been able to figure out what was in the book and they never would have been exposed to the content and they never would have known anything about it but that is just not the case today we are not living in that world so from my point of view when we could be spending time energy resources on things that are

094so much more important for our students on their actual education on their reading science math the the things that really matter to them that's where our resources our time and energy should go and that's what our taxpayer dollars are funding us to do not be the morality police so I take issue of at with all of this it just is beyond frustrating to me I will never approve Banning a book it is unamerican it goes against freedom of speech and it's a honestly it's a mood point maybe again 1950 could banned it all it's 2024 and you can't okay thank you um anyone else before I make my comment okay so for for me I you know in addition to what was mentioned we we must respect the process and when our committee votes six

095to one we must pay attention as a board and it's based on the process that was explained by Dr Shaka and so for me again in addition to some of the comments out here tonight I want to respect the process and I want to respect the people who took the time to go through through this and spend their time towards giving us a recommendation and a 61 is pretty solid and so that would be my comment thank you are we ready okay so basically the recommendation is to deny the appeal so a yes vote is a denial a no vote is not okay so can we have a roll call vote please trusty crane yes trusty wean trusty oryu yes to deny right yes trusty BTO no trusty Murphy yes trusty Pearson yes trusty Anderson

096yes all right the vote carries one two three four five five Y and one nay and one absent thank you all right let's move on to 17b approve third amendment to employment agreement for superintendent yeah with a successful evaluation I have a chance to come before the board in public and ask for any contract adjustments the only one I'm seeking is an extension of my contract by one year which is permissible by law all right thank you Dr Smith do I have a motion for this for 17b um so moved second uh who was okay uh moved by trusty Barto seconded by trusty Anderson roll call vote please trusty crane yes trusty ween trusty soyu yes trusty BTO yes trusty Murphy yes trusty Pearson yes trusty Anderson yes the vote carries unanimously with one absent

097um let's move on to the added item that we added to and uh created 17c which is um from B 41 and that was the contract um where is it hold on 41 approve the renewal agreement between groundwell the bridges program and Newport Harbor High School for the 2024 2025 school year do I have a motion so moved second okay was that um sorry Anderson Oru all right discussion yes again um I asked to pull this one because I while I think the bridges program has been a valuable program especially for um our high school students um who kind of need additional group um to be part of um my issue is more with Groundswell um we had some issues with them in the past which led us to discontinue a previous relationship I believe

098and they've branded um I'm just concerned that they haven't really addressed kind of the the issues that we had with them in the past so um it's problematic for me to continue the contract okay um trusty Anderson and then thank you and TR um yes when we last approved this agreement um it was during the school year and we had I think over 20 Newport Harbor students come um and they were um emphatic that we keep this program and of the importance of this program at their School site and um doing what it's intended to do bridging um the very different populations and um perspectives and viewpoints of students at the campus um one of the things too and actually being able to attend some of these um when they had when they were part

099of a different group is seeing that it also um was something that was important and valuable for staff at Newport Harbor they were able to attend um and learn from this and to hear directly from students um I I think there might be a bit of a confusion as to um an outside provider that was doing some of the classes previously rather than the organization um the I am a firm supporter in OC human relations which had been tked for many years with a county contract um and I see this as an essential need in our continuing polarization in our community um and so I I don't want to I mean we're able to but like it's it's frustrating to see a program that we've had since 2002 and has been um widely received and

100applauded on our campuses by staff parents and students continue to come up as an issue of question um I when we have a year that goes by on one of our campuses that we don't have swastikas perhaps we can we can consider changing course but we continue to have hate crimes we continue to have extreme racism on some of our campuses unfortunately when that dies down when we don't have that as much perhaps we can consider removing um an organization and a program that Direct IR ly um create situations to reduce that and to protect our students and to bring groups together and students that are Divergent to have a safe space to talk through differences which to me is what I think all students should be learning as they exit our schools so um

101yes I hope that we can improve it tonight as we have since 2002 thank you trusty or solo yes I think trusty Anderson has said a lot of what I would um argue what we're talking about here and again spending our precious time is talking about a $99,000 contract to keep doing what has been done and has been successful at one of our school sites for decades so um again to let folks know this is about planning schoolwide projects student conflict resolution facilitator training um supporting the teachers that are implementing Bridges and just a little bit more about bridges I went back through through my um I was the evaluator of the bridges program back in 2013 evaluated it across all of Orange County and I can tell you that this program is an extremely

102valuable asset to our kids especially today as it was in 2013 apparently according to the data but also so that folks are aware Bridges is a nationally recognized program it's been identified by the White House as a promising practice it's been chosen by the US Department um Department of Justice and Department of Education as one of seven programs specifically to prevent hate crimes in schools and communities and it was featured in a school safety Journal not a partisan weird written I don't know what but a school safety journal in 1997 was touting how effective Bridges is for our students and for conflict resolution so again this is just manufacturing descent um on something that has been proven tried and true to benefit our kids and it's just something we need to keep doing so thank

103you thank you trusty Pearson yeah Michelle this is your school so I want to hear from you um do you see more negative coming out of this group than positive I mean what what are you opposed to yeah I was like a complete 180 on this um from where I was and just a very minimal amount of due diligence when I researched this item kind of put me in a completely different spot than I had been because I have seen value in this program um um we back I don't know how many years ago now six years ago when we had um the issue with swastica at Newport Harbor um was when we had this Bridges program come out come about and I think that it has since 2018 H it was way before that

104was way before this but this original contract is from goes through 2018 I did the the backup on it um so that was why we brought this particular program back that was in 2019 the in was um I mean Carrie can speak on that because that's where I got won't we ask when do you know the information please Dr T T um and we have um and several points of your discussions tonight there's accuracy um but just to clarify we have been in partnership with this organization since 2002 and have varying levels of contracts um for the bridges program since that time uh in 2018 they pivoted they the organization groundwell OC human relation pivoted in their Contracting um and changed their Direction in terms of just actual technical um work and so in 2018

105we renewed the contract and it moved forward um and we've continued to bring this contract forward in perpetuity each year boom boom boom right so um and of course in the three years that I've been here I've seen it um and this being the third time um so it is a it is a long-standing contract um and it has uh had different um focuses or F guy over the few years uh knowing that Newport Harbor has faced um uh many different tumultuous and turbulent times um they have come in and supported at different levels and so um the OC human relations of 2018 was working on specific issues of 2019 um and so and currently in 2024 what they plan to do so um this particular uh new contract I would say was birthed in

1062018 but we have had that long-standing partnership since uh 2002 with Debbie po leading that um for over 20 years two decades worth of work um with this group okay so trusty Pearson you asked the question to trusty Barto to be specific about the experience are you done are you done trusty BTO with your please please keep going yeah uh no I so like I said I did a did my due diligence and I looked up the the people who are involved in the coordination of the program and um as I looked into their backgrounds I'm not comfortable with um you know I Public School serves all types and we need to bridge Gap gaps and I think racism has no place in our schools so I'm not opposed to the bridges program and I

107know it's very valued by our staff and our students but when I look into the background of the people who are specifically involved in the program at that High School from ground swell um it it's it's different than merely healing racism it's um promoting a lot of other things and so that's why I have a problem with it and I and I know that when we worked with OC human relations in the past um there had been some challenges in the way they handled things after the fact um and after the Red Solo Cup incident um we'd been kind of directed like how we wanted the program to run for our district um I don't feel confident that it's going to continue to run in the direction that we would want it to run just

108based on the um biographies of the people who are involved in 2024 trusty trusty Anderson trusty Anderson you have the light on and but these people that you looked into trust let's remember we have to take turns yeah supposed to be having dialog so so I again double check so this contract was approved last time in 2018 the swastika beer pong not the red Solo cup to me we need to call it what it is um was March 2019 so us approving Bridges again did not have a correlation with the incident my concern is there was an outside group um that I'm not going to name because it was a small business um I don't think it's appropriate but they were not connected to this organization they were an outside entity of our task force

109I think they're getting convoluted in what I'm hearing I'm hearing it being convoluted as the same thing and they're not um OC human relations now ground SW has been leading this work in our County and at Newport Harbor and if one consultant that they use is a problem or a concern that is one thing perhaps we can ask for specific people that are part of their staff that are paid members of their staff um but that to me does not negate an entire contract and also I just want to point out that while the schools in my area um are all elementary schools that I represent a we represent the whole District as my lovely former trustees FL and MTO used to tell me every day um the students from Whittier and a bunch of

110students from Ray also attend newart Harbor and I actually just had a former newart Harbor student this week reach out to me about our work and asking where it was going because she had exper exp erien so much racism in our schools so when the students from Newport from Whittier and matriculate to Newport Harbor and they feel like they don't have a voice and that no one is connecting with them this program specifically has been that Advocate that that vehicle of connecting people so if one person or two people that are outside Consultants that are not even members of an organization are the problem I think that can be a conversation but I would not want that to directly or negatively impact students okay um trusty Pearson did you have do you want to finish

111your thought I'm just trying this is the first I've heard so I'm just trying to figure this out um so the one person that we you've looked into are they in direct contact with our students at Newport Harbor I mean is it something something that they're going to Dr Torres do you know the answer I don't have the name of that individual I'd have to research that however um we do have a regular partner that is um with Newport Harbor meaning a regular service provider who is part of groundwell OC human relations who does work with Newport Harbor High School it's been a consistent individual um however if um one of the trustees has a question about a particular individual in the organization I'd be happy to research that um breaking news Dr Smith may

112have the answer Dr Smith yeah I would say because I've had this conversation doing some research that um the person in question doesn't provide Direct Services to students we have Angela Zavala and Ghana deep that have been there for a while I think Angela Zava is actually a graduate of Newport Harbor High School um I think what we're talking about is someone related to the organization um but to your to your question about who provides the services to students it's those those two people all right um trusty Oro yeah yeah I mean it's just curious to hear that you know research and like Recon into someone's background at an organization is guiding um a decision when we know this organization has been providing this service for 20 years with Ali Edwards has been at the

113helm of bridges and is now at the helm of groundwell and she has the utmost integrity and most of us here know her and so anyone who is working under her um I would also assume that she has vetted them as thoroughly as she needs to run her nonprofit organization so this is just a curious conversation to me I don't know why we're having it but um to just voice my my descent for questioning staff members of an organization that we know and trust and are we going to start reading everyone's bio I mean I taught a course called environmental racism in America you should I be booted from the board you know so it it's like where does this end when we start investigating everybody's resume um so yeah that's that's all I have

114all right try BTO and again I feel like I've been very supportive of bridges over the years I have a Bridges sweatshirt that I wear so I'm not really opposed to Bridges and I'm not opposed to the work um what I'm opposed to is specific things that I've seen related to the work and I know that we had a hiccup when we worked with this organization in the past so that's what I'm trying to avoid and if we can confirm that what we're providing is um moderate and fair I have no problem with those things all right TR BTO can you provide the specifics because you've mentioned specifics like such as I feel like doxing someone in I don't think I think that's fair I mean you guys can vote how you like but I

115don't really want to call someone out I that's I respect that all right thank you all right so um let's go ahead and vote um roll call please this is this is so I can so we can clarify this is to approve the contract um for Bridges trusty crane yes trusty wean trusty Oru yes trusty Barto no trusty yes trusty Pearson yes trusty Anderson yes all right the motion carries five uh Y and one nay one absent thank you we now move on to superintendent informal informal reports with Dr Smith I've started with this uh lesson before we don't take Summers off in public education um but recently we finished our summer Academy what a what a great program again so I've said this before but again grateful for classified certificated staff for everyone that

116pulled that off maintenance operations Transportation everything that it took the warehouse uh to serve 4,000 kids amazing and I I think about the conversations I had with students right so we can talk about the numbers of people Etc I'm visiting a classroom with Girls Incorporated and it's about entrepreneurialship and the student is um third grade and she's pitching this idea in a shark tank environment um of a freeze-dried all healthy um yogurt right drink uh fro yo kind of thing and she said but all healthy and I said well would you have to have water to rehydrate she goes no that would that wouldn't be any use what if you're out in the desert you don't have water you just put it in your mouth and rehydrates it she said and the trick is with

117our bag we're not filling it half full like those potato chip bags it's going to be full of high quality stuff right these are our kids talking about freeze-dried fro Yos they can take to the desert on a hike and hydrate themselves right and and and again Girls Incorporated the steam the women and steam that we just saw it starts at that young age that's a powerful coordination of what we're talking about and then to see the performances and the play and the activities and I just want to compliment the board because once again um I sat in each of those nprs um and we've got work to do right they're they're they're hot they're hot I'm I'm kind of a heavy guy I sweat a little bit I learned two years ago I got

118to pack uh handkerchiefs in my in my pocket so I can wipe myself down um and you can't hear some of the the folks because they don't have mics up there uh and so kids you're missing out on some of the gems but here's here's the good news this board and our staff have have worked on that and fixed that they identified the tick fund sometime time ago to provide those resources our team has been working on the specs for all that this year we'll have uh fan systems quiet fan systems to circulate the air and make those rooms cooler for students and the staff that serve the students and they'll have drop down mics and and PA systems so um this board is prioritizing that work uh and it it really just lifts up

119the opportunities we have I mentioned summer work if you drive around the district um you think we're not opening this coming year because at every side we're doing all kinds of work roofs and and extra buildings and and looking at capacity issues and there's construction everywhere and we are on target uh to open every school before teachers come back on the 12 right even with all that work that doesn't happen by accident so facilities M all the work you do and then Warehouse right all the things we have to take out there we we do new textbook adoptions right people think about oh you know it's all about the debate about which is a better book and warehouse is just saying how did we get all those books for whatever book you pick how do

120we get it out there right and then I decide to bring in Stephen Arvy and the Franklin group to do leadership the speed of trust and they send us pallets of information you're welcome everybody in the room gets to attend on this Friday and the warehouse has to figure out where to put those and how to get those out and all of that and you know what they do they just do it right so to to all of our teammates to again classifi certificate that are here that haven't left that are preparing even if they did leave rather and they're preparing for the 19th when we welcome back 18,000 of the best students on this planet right I just want to send a big Kudos and a thank you to all of them for all

121you've done all you're doing to prepare for that date it's it's inspirational to watch all of you work and for the board's prioritizing those elements including expanded learning so thank you all thank you Dr Smith who would like to go I'm just going to give um trustey choice this time for one second yeah um one thing that I think is really great is Coastline Ro um entered into hopefully it's going to about to ocde tonight but um a partnership with ocde for with access so um our access students will have access to our Coastline Roop programs which I think um such a valuable way to engage students who um are not engaged with their regular cour work that was all I know they have a spider love yeah yeah okay Murphy oh sure you want

122me to espouse more of my feelings about them book whatever it's your turn now that everybody knows how I feel about it um I'm probably gonna get the nastiest books on the planet sent to me so that'll be fun um uh just wanted to say um always I respect your opinion so thank you for sharing it um and you know on certain certainty certain things of course that you said I agree but it's just a fundamental view on book Banning but um so I just wanted to thank Jeff and his team for everything you're doing for Costa Mesa yay um as supervisor Foley said we are very much looking forward to the ribbon cutting are we going to like put a big ribbon around the whole football field and make it real cool um so

123I know it's been a lot of work and I know your team has put a lot of time and energy and effort which I find very very um applaudable and a good use of your time energy and resources uh to make sure that our students at Costa Mesa have the best facilities so um and are able to have what we have at Costa Mesa which is like you know the stands are full of you know of students of former students of you know community members and so it's going to be great I can't wait and thank you um also uh just wanted to say thanks for everybody's hard work on the Raiders I don't know if anyone saw them uh cruising through a town yesterday going down Fairview with a um with a police motorcade

124so right that was yeah that was exciting um so I did get lots of people asking me how they can go watch the Raiders and I I don't know if anyone's noticed that um you can't see that the fences have all been blacked out so unfortunately anyone who's out there watching you cannot go see the Raiders um but thank you to them and our team um and everyone who put together uh the agreement with them for the new equipment in the um gym because I'm already hearing from our uh football players at Costa Mesa how much they love the new equipment and how excited they are about that so um as always thank you to our amazing team and your staff and all the hard work you put into everything um that makes our district

125so great and such a wonderful place for our students thank you trusty Murphy trusty Pearson I got to go visit our summer school students at Lincoln um couple weeks ago it was fantastic um I want to thank the district and everyone involved in the summer school program I mean thank you thank you for everything you do it's so nice walking into a Auditorium of parents and students when everybody is Happy um it it was just I got to see dancers sing um and they all sounded good and they were fantastic so thank you thanks for providing our students with that um very valuable lessons during the summer um I just love the agendas as we get closer to the school year with the all of the items of things that we're going to be offering

126um I'm really excited about the addition of so many um highquality after school programs and support services for our students um I'm really excited to to see avid expanding and um I did just want to mention um that Bridges is an opt-in program for anyone who is concerned or any questions um and lastly um on Saturday is our community resource Fair thank you for Dr Tores for putting all of that together um michi's and all of the Community Partners that are coming from foster care agencies to haircuts to all kinds of things in our community and thank you to Ikea for hosting that at 8:00 um on Saturday thank you great so um I too had the opportunity to go visit summer school see our scholars in action went to Lincoln and Mariners campuses uh

127I was um escorted by Dr Flores who showed me the all the classrooms and it was absolutely amazing to see the kids how excited they were they were and uh there was learning there was thinking maps and you know a lot of just you know fluency related activities but then you go to another classroom and there's you know um The Girls Inc in entrepreneurial um you know showcases and Arts and Music I went to theater production there was just so much going on and the the best part is that these kids are not on screens at home they are in the classroom in a safe environment and they are socializing with each each other under a very guided and professional team and so that's that's amazing and um I I I bragged to all my

128other um trustees from other districts like we have one of the most robust programs and I I'm actually excited to see data because I know that um some of the staff has taken teachers took Baseline assessments and then um exit assessments so we can't wait because you know as you know we love data so we'd love to see um um the the progress some point when you're ready so thank you to this summer school staff and everyone that made it happen classified certificated I do know that the teachers that were there you know it's an opportunity for them to also you know make more money and also um be able to afford the three weeks after because we started um they really enjoyed starting school closer to the end of the year um and then

129that way they would have three weeks left in the in for summer to be with their families and so they appreciated that um I um want to do a shout out to our Olympians it is the Olympics right now and we have several Olympians that are competing um at the World level I mean how amazing I I know for sure Newport Harbor is represented um in W poo CDM I think we have more from our schools we're going to get the data and also share that but wow how amazing is that so don't not only do we turn out Scholars we turn out just amazing humans period and uh today I had the pleasure of attending um assemblywoman Dixon's uh Forum Quorum on um uh she had invited superintendents and trustees uh because she wanted

130to hear what we wanted what we needed um for from Sacramento and uh I just appreciate the fact that she reached out to to these educational leaders in her District in order to hear what how she could be more effective um in Sacramento when it comes to education so she she heard an earful for sure but we it was great there were about seven eight districts represented including Newport Mesa so it was wonderful to be there and to I really appreciate the fact that she reached out to to us and um you know it's for her to hear where we're coming from and that's it I just wish everyone an end of year for summer just done and then just kind of just rejuvenate and R do the reset button refresh and just uh start

131the fall with a bang so um and thank you everyone for for being a part of it meeting is adjourned 754